Development of a business idea for improving elderly people quality of life with an smart mirror

This Master Thesis project proposes a solution in the telecommunication world for the elderly people, considering that represents a growing population and that if considered a focused target market in certain technological sectors as Smart Health, could help to diminish the amount of human and economic resources invested in their care taking. The service is supported in a smart mirror, which was a given technology through a company internship. Therefore, this thesis presents the development of a videoconference software as part of a benefit and basis for a business strategy. Specifically, the project focuses on a service called “Elderly communication” to support their contact with relatives and friends. This service is developed as a channel of communication at home denominated “Smart Elderly Home” and also in clinics and institutions dedicated to “Smart Elderly Care”, so when they are hospitalized or hosted, they could easily access their contact with doctors and also personal network. Moreover, for the future of this project some guidelines are presented to enhance the communication service for elderly people with care services and health check-up features. For this reason, we are going to see which business are supported now in smart mirrors as a product and the development of a new model of smart services within the Smart Health sector. The report is organized in three chapters. Chapter 1 contextualizes the problem of elderly people care and the main aspects of the technological solution as a device and a service. Chapter 2 presents the technological analysis of the potential functionality of the smart mirror and the specificities developed through its programming and the process taken during its design, implementation and validation. Chapter 3 exposes the business idea developed for a smart mirror as a friendly device delivering basic assistance in care services for elderly population at a reduced cost. Finally, some conclusions are drawn in terms of economic, ecologic and social aspects of the proposal